A CCRIF Review of Regional Data Management and Sharing Issues Grahame Niles Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF)
Presenta:on Format What is CCRIF? How CCRIF Uses Data The Impact of Regional Data Management and Sharing Issues on CCRIF Suggestions for Regional Data Sharing Initiatives Summary
What is CCRIF? Further to growing regional concerns regarding for hazard impact preparedness and risk mitigation, Ivan s impact of nearly 200% of GDP on Grenada and the Cayman Islands provided incentive for CARICOM heads of government to take action In 2004 (following Ivan) CARICOM heads of government requested that the World Bank design and implement a cost effective risk transfer programme on their behalf With capital raised from public donors (US $50 M) and participants (US $22 M) the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) was launched in 2007. CCRIF serves as a regional catastrophe fund to limit the financial impact of devastating hurricanes and earthquakes by providing liquidity very quickly after a major event As the world s first multi-national parametric insurance risk pool covering sovereign nations, it functions like business interruption insurance against Government revenue reductions in the aftermath of major natural catastrophes
What is CCRIF? At present 16 regional states par:cipate in CCRIF: Anguilla An=gua and Barbuda The Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda The Cayman Islands Dominica Grenada Hai= Jamaica Saint KiEs and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago The Turks and Caicos Islands CCRIF provides coverage to these territories through use of a pre- agreed catastrophe risk model and public- domain input data to es:mate government losses immediately ager an event Payments are then quickly made against those es:mated losses without the need for slow and costly on- the- ground loss adjustment
How CCRIF Uses Data There are two main areas where CCRIF uses geospa:al and non- spa:al data in its services to member countries Catastrophe risk modelling (of earthquake, hurricane and rain events) This relies on publicly sourced disaster event data (USGS, NHC and NASA) and socio- economic data for member countries (popula:on, GDP, sector contribu:ons, major infrastructure, etc.) Informa:on is also derived from remotely sensed topography, bathymetry, land cover, etc. Disaster forecas=ng, event analysis and repor=ng Public data is also used in a major way (USGS, NHC, TRMM, SRTM, etc ) Where possible country specific geospa:al data is obtained from member territories and used to support various types of analyses. e.g. - CCRIF s 2010 Economics of Climate Adapta:on study relied on data from various member countries. Countries submized GIS shapefiles of their cri:cal infrastructures (government buildings and roads). These data were used as inputs to a model which would calculate various scenarios for how climate change could impact on these countries Availability of high quality and reliable geospa:al data is cri:cal to the work CCRIF does
Impact of Regional Data Management and Sharing Issues on CCRIF Acquisi=on of high quality regional geospa=al data is very challenging Acquisi:on processes are ogen laden with complica:ons and uncertain:es or data is simply not shared Once acquired certain trends pertaining to the management of data are evident for several territories with a few excep=ons observed Metadata is ogen insufficient or totally absent Appropriate database standards that promote efficiency are some:mes lacking. Geospa:al data ogen contain several ambigui:es/duplica:ons and generally fail to conform to normalisa:on standards SubmiZed GIS shapefiles ogen lack specific and meaningful azribute categorisa:ons and tend to be very generalised These acquisi=on issues and data management trends force CCRIF to rely almost exclusively on public sources of data for analysis and repor=ng CCRIF s catastrophe modelling and its Real Time Forecas=ng System could see significant improvements with the incorpora=on of comprehensive geo- located inventories of all cri=cal country structures and natural features with appropriate classifica=ons and values where relevant.
Sugges:ons for Regional Data Sharing CCRIF encourages the use of proprietary and open source geospa=al tools that promote data sharing CCRIF uses a Google Earth based tool known as The Arbiter Of Storms (TAOS) Real Time Forecas=ng System (RTFS) to provide real- =me es=mates of maximum expected hazard levels and impacts (from wind, storm surge, wave and precipita=on) on member state popula=ons for ac=ve Atlan=c cyclones Google Earth in conjunc=on with other freely obtained geospa=al tools are useful mechanisms for data sharing Numerous third- party applica:ons support transla:on of GIS shapefiles into the na:ve Google Earth file formats (KML/KMZ) and vice versa GIS operators in the region can use powerful proprietary desktop sogware (ESRI, MapInfo, GeoMedia) or open source versions (GRASS) to manipulate country data in meaningful ways and then share these data as KMZ/KML files. Data can also be made available through web sites using the Google Earth API extension to grant free access through a web browser
Sugges:ons for Regional Data Sharing Open source tools like GeoNode provide even more advanced levels of func=onality and can take the data sharing concept a step further GeNode s open design innately encourages constant improvement/enhancement and redistribu:on of regional datasets The open concepts upon which GeoNode was built on also aid to build consensus within the region on the implementa:on of higher data quality standards with greater uniformity among fellow countries on data management prac:ces CCRIF is presently developing a pilot GeoNode site to test the suitability of this plaworm for dissemina=on of products which we aim to make available to CCRIF member countries and the wider disaster community Development is expected to be complete by end of October 2011.
Summary BeEer data management prac=ces with higher degrees of regional uniformity is absolutely cri=cal to regional risk mi=ga=on ini=a=ves This can best be achieved through a combina=on of The formal establishment of regional geospa:al data management policies which speak to common standards for data collec:on, storage and maintenance prac:ces Equal levels of enforcement of these policies by regional authori:es responsible for the management of geospa:al data Sharing of regional data for the advancement of catastrophe risk mi=ga=on must be promoted though regional policy as well as via prac=cal use of so[ware technology that lend to this principle Greater levels of educa:on on the prac:cal use and benefits of various forms of cost effec:ve geospa:al technologies is cri:cal
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